The High Court has observed in a ruling that the delay in completing the investigation and commencing the trial for the murder of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi is a continuous mockery of the justice system, which is damaging the judiciary.
The observation, made by the High Court bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Mohammad Bazlur Rahman, appeared in a May 13 ruling’s full text, released on Tuesday, that death row convicts should not be kept in condemned cells before the final disposal of an appeal.
Sagar Sarowar, news editor of Maasranga Television, and his wife, Meherun Runi, senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were murdered on February 11, 2012, at their rented house in West Rajabazar, Dhaka.
As of now, the submission of the investigation report in this murder case has been postponed 109 times.
"In our country, it sometimes takes more than 20 years for a murder trial to take place. If murders are given a political appearance, it may take even longer. For example, the FIR in the Bangabandhu murder case could not be filed for more than 21 years," the court said.
Sagar-Runi murder: Probe report submission deferred for 109th time"Twelve years after the filing of the Sagar-Runi murder case, the investigation is still not complete, and hence it has not yet reached the trial stage,” it added.
These observations were found in the full text of the High Court bench's ruling in response to a writ petition challenging the legality of keeping three death row convicts in the condemned cell.
The High Court said those who had been sentenced to death but had appeals pending should not be kept in the condemned cell, and the authorities concerned must transfer such convicts from the condemned cell to the general prison.
In the 65-page full text, the court directed the relevant prison authorities to take immediate steps to transfer the prisoners from the condemned cell to the general prison and to complete this process within two years.
